Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Wish I Owned In Other Editions

Hello everybody! Today’s theme for the meme “Top Ten Tuesday” hosted by The Broke and the Bookish was “You Choose”. I was really excited to have the opportunity to pick my own theme as part of this already super fun feature, and here’s what I came up with:

top ten books i wish i owned in other editions

1. EVERY CLASSIC EVER:In accordance with what I refer to as “The Classics Curse” it is a known fact that almost immediately after you purchase a classic you will find a prettier edition of it. There are so many different publishers who have beautiful classics collections and it’s impossible to decide on just one. I am thoroughly convinced that as of right now I am the proud owner of the most hideous Jane Austen novels in existence. I definitely am hoping to re-buy some of my classics soon.

2. THE HARRY POTTER SERIES BY J.K. ROWLINGI own most of the American paperback versions of the Harry Potter books (the old ones, without the castle on the spine) and a box set of the original American hardcovers. I like owning them because they are the covers that I’ll always associate the books with and the versions that I grew up reading, but all of the UK editions are so incredibly beautiful that I don’t allow myself to even browse anything related to Harry Potter on Book Depository anymore because I get so tempted. I think that J.K. Rowling told all of the publishers that UK readers got to have the prettiest covers because that’s where she’s from or something.

3. THE THRONE OF GLASS SERIES BY SARAH J. MAASIf you live anywhere but the UK and you’re planning on buying and reading the Throne of Glass series, do yourself a favor and stop right now, go on Book Depository, and buy the UK covers. Not only are they totally stunning, but they’re cheaper because they come out in paperback right away and did I mention that they’re totally stunning? I still need to finish reading the two American versions I own of ToG and CoM but when I do and hopefully like them I’m planning on purchasing the entire series in the UK covers. #noregrets

4. THE MISTBORN TRILOGY BY BRANDON SANDERSONIf you haven’t seen the stunning Mistborn trilogy boxed set yet, then clearly it’s been a while since you’ve been on Booktube, Bookstagram, Tumblr… sigh. I already own the first two books in the tolerable non-mass market American editions, but – surprise, surprise – the UK editions are quite possibly the most beautiful books ever. I couldn’t find a place to buy them anywhere, so I settled for the American ones which were on BookOutlet, and the very next day the pretty box set is back in stock on Book Depository. I don’t want to talk about it.

5. THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS SERIES BY CASSANDRA CLARENow, maybe this one shouldn’t count because I don’t actually own these books in any edition yet, but I’m including it because I know that when I do purchase these books there is a very slim chance that I’ll spend the money to get my hand on these editions. However, the new color editions of the books are so gorgeous and every time I see a picture of them on Instagram I throw my phone at the wall out of jealousy. And I know some of you might be thinking, what color editions? You might not know what they are because they were released iN THE UK. I mean, we got a cover change, too. But don’t try and convince me that these editions are equal in any way:

6. THE JOHN GREEN BOOKSI really like all of the John Green book covers. I think they all look really nice, An Abundance of Katherines being my favorite. However, I think that the typical American editions aren’t the prettiest ones out there. In my mind, that award has to go to the (altogether now!) UK editions. With the exception of maybe An Abundance of Katherines, I love these editions so much more than the US ones.

7. THE HUNGER GAMES BY SUZANNE COLLINSThis is one of those few cases where I actually don’t like the UK editions of these books at all (with the exception of the “adult edition”, but how is there even an adult edition of these books? What was it about kids killing each other that wasn’t adult enough for you?). However, a few years after I bought and read the standard American covers of these books, what comes out but beautiful foil editions of the entire trilogy. What exactly is a foil edition? I couldn’t tell you. Why were they released? No idea. But I need them.

8. THE LUNAR CHRONICLES BY MARISSA MEYERI am absolutely in love with a foreign edition of these books and, shockingly enough, it’s not the UK editions! The Spanish editions of this series are so eerily beautiful. I think they represent the books a lot better than the US versions, and I wish I was more fluent in “español” so that I could give myself an excuse to buy them. Por desgracia, yo no estoy allí todavía. (As represented by the fact that entire last sentence was brought to you by Google Translate)

9. THE TWILIGHT SAGA BY STEPHANIE MEYERWhile I enjoyed the Twilight series, I didn’t like them nearly enough to even consider re-buying them. However, you have to admit that the white editions are completely stunning. I’m really like super simple covers lately and these ones totally do it for me. I wish I could display them on my shelf, but unfortunately I passed up the brand new limited edition white box set for second hand editions that were fifty dollars cheaper. Can you blame me?

10. LEGEND BY MARIE LUMy sister read the Legend trilogy before me. She read Legend a few months after it came out from the library, and then bought her own copies of the next two books in hardcover as they came out. I then got a paperback copy of Legend for free at a book fair after I helped make posters to promote it, completing our collection. But it’s paperback and the other two are hardcover. I know that this is such a book snobbish thing to say, but it’s driving me crazy. Not only is it paperback, but it’s a really short paperback and I swear when you look at my shelf it stands out so much that you’d think there was a foot in height difference between the three books. I haven’t repurchased it yet because I haven’t even completely read that series yet, but ughhhhhhhhh.

That was my Top Ten Tuesday for this week! I had a blast picking my own topic, and I’d love to read what you chose, so be sure to let me know in the comments below if you made a post so that I can check it out.

14 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I Wish I Owned In Other Editions”

We’ve got the same pretty Lunar Chronicles editions in Poland. Covers are lovely and the background is printed with this matte paint not a standard glossy one 😀
When it goes to different editions I only wish I had some of the e-books as the pretty paper versions.

Ohhh…those are all so beautiful. I wish there was a site where I could just plug in any book and see what all the foreign cover arts looked like for it. There are so many permutations of books and their visual components, I can’t even keep track of them.

Meanwhile, I’m over here thinking that if I only had more money I’d go and finish building a complete HARDBACK collection of Harry Potter…some of my books are so beat up and second hand, because I got into the series “late” when I was 10 years-old XD

I’m not a big fan of the UK TOG covers, with maybe an exception of Crown Of Midnight. Mortal Instruments, UK UK UK UK! I must admit I haven’t finished reading the series (I got to book three but never finished it) I hate the new US covers, I mean the spines are cool but honestly I would rather have a cover where it looks like the head got cut off, then this. Great answers!